


The Rime on the Spray

by vvj5 (lost_spook)



Category: Doctor Who (1963)
Genre: Alien Planet, Gen, Timey-Wimey
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-03-21
Updated: 2010-03-21
Packaged: 2017-12-04 09:38:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,840
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/709291
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lost_spook/pseuds/vvj5
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Doctor, Ben and Polly find themselves out on an alien moor on a wintry night with a dangerous mystery to solve.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Starlight Lonesomeness

_When I set out for Lyonesse_  
A hundred miles away  
The rime was on the spray  
And starlight lit my lonesomeness  
When I set out for Lyonesse  
A hundred miles away.  
(Thomas Hardy)

 

*

**Prologue**

It was not a night to be out on the moor. It was a night as cold and clear and hard as a diamond; the air against his face stung, and he wondered if the frost was settling on him as it was on the rocks and trees and short grass around him.

The stars lit his path as he walked. Coming from the City, he’d never seen them till he’d started on this journey, not like this: so bright, or so near. There was nothing else in sight, only the road ahead, the uncertain outlines of the ground and the few gnarled and twisted trees scattered here and there against the sky.

Only that, and the tower in the distance. He could see the shape of it looming from here, small lights picked out round the sides.

It was too icy for him to stop and wonder at it, or that someone who’d come from such a sheltered background should not only be out here alone, travelling by foot with nothing he was used to around him, on an old-fashioned quest to reach it. It was such a ridiculous thing, that now it was in sight, he also wondered what they would say when he arrived. Would they laugh, and tell him to turn around and go home?

But he had made it, and that in itself was a miracle, he thought, as he viewed his destination. Now he had done the impossible, it was time to worry about what had happened here and what he thought he could do. He wasn’t a hero, or a genius, or anyone of any importance and he doubted anything he had to offer would be enough.

***

 

**Part One: Starlight Lonesomeness**   


“It’s freezing!” gasped Polly, at the TARDIS door. She backed inside. “I need a coat,” she added, pulling a quick grimace at Ben.

The Doctor caught the look. “I shouldn’t make faces like that, my dear,” he advised with a small chuckle. “Only think what would happen if the wind changed.”

She made another behind his back and disappeared out of sight.

“Blimey,” said Ben, the other of the Doctor’s latest companions – or stowaways, if you wanted to put it another way – as he followed Polly’s example, poking his head out of the door. His breath was visible in front of his face, like smoke. “It is freezing. Mind if I go get some proper togs, too?”

The Doctor nodded, still mildly amused at their reaction. “Yes, yes, my boy. I daresay it would be better than turning into an icicle at any rate.”

*

The three of them eventually emerged in thick coats.

“That’s better,” said Polly. “Now, wherever are we, Doctor?”

While the Doctor hmphed over that and made some excuse about the TARDIS being on the blink again, Ben looked around him, unsure whether he should be hoping for home or not. Of course, he wanted to go back; he and Pol hadn’t signed up for this voyage when they’d gone to return the old boy’s key, but on the other hand, once they did, he’d be back to the more normal kind of ship, and ten to one that was the last he’d see of Polly.

He glanced at a nearby tree. New frost was glistening at the edges but there were a few leaves on it, oddly shaped, though – more angular than those he was used to; a bit like a spade in a pack of cards. He touched one and then pulled his hand back, cursing under his breath.

“What is it?” asked Polly, turning her head towards him, and breaking off her conversation with the Doctor. There was a rough path between them, with stones round it.

Ben put his hand in his pocket hastily. “Nothing. Should have found some gloves, that’s all.” It had been cold, frozen, and as sharp as a knife. When he took his hand out to glance back down at it, he found he’d picked up a fine cut on his finger.

“We’re not even on Earth, are we?” he said, staring about him. 

They were out on moorland that wasn’t so different from places in his own country, but things around them were subtly wrong in ways he couldn’t quite pinpoint, like the leaves on the trees being an odd shape – and the wrong sort not to have fallen before it got this far into winter. And the main thing was staring him in the face – or maybe it’d be truer to say it _wasn’t_ staring him in the face. The stars were shining clear and sharp in the sky, brighter than even at sea on a good night, but there was no moon: a myriad of distant stars to light their way, but no familiar old satellite to dominate the sky.

Polly reached him. “Not on Earth? Doctor, can that be true?”

“Well, of course,” said the Doctor. He waved a hand vaguely. “Why should it be Earth, eh? Your world isn’t the only the one, you know.”

Ben put a hand on her arm, as she followed his gaze up into the sky, her eyes widening as she made the same realisation as he had.

“It was to us till just now,” he said. “You all right, Duchess?”

She nodded, the stars reflected in her dark eyes. “Of course. Ben, this is fantastic. We’re standing on another planet, looking up at a different sky. We might be the first humans who’ve been here. I can hardly believe it.”

“Dear me,” said the Doctor suddenly, behind him. Ben turned to see the old man lean back against his ship, short of breath for a moment. “Dear, dear. Something seems to be -. Something’s terribly wrong -”

Polly hurried back to his side. “Doctor,” she said, catching at his arm. “Are you all right? Should we go back inside?”

“No, of course not,” he said straightening himself and tugging at his cloak. “So sorry. Where was I?”

Ben reached him now. “You don’t look all that great, Doc. Are you sure you’re okay?”

“Perfectly,” he said, frowning at them both now. “There’s no need to fuss. Something gave me a bit of a turn then and what I should like is not to return to my Ship – I am not an invalid, my boy; I’m quite well!”

“’Course you are, Doctor,” said Ben, humouring him.

He turned his sharp gaze on him, bright blue eyes that had something of the sparkle of the frost about them. “What I should like, my dear boy, is to find out what was the cause!”

At that moment, they heard a cry.

*

It wasn’t an animal’s cry, Polly thought, with a shiver. It sounded as though it was someone, not something – and someone obviously in some distress.

“What now?” said Ben, turning his head in the direction of the sound.

The Doctor’s face furrowed into lines, as he if was in pain. Polly had to catch hold of him again.

“You look after the Doc,” Ben said to Polly. “I’ll go see what that was – sounds like someone else is in trouble.”

She bit her lip and nodded, hanging onto the Doctor, who was muttering incoherently now.

“He’s not himself, is he?” said Ben, hanging back and looking at him warily. “Maybe -”

She lifted her head. “No, go, Ben. Only do be careful.”

Ben ran off in the direction of the noise, and Polly turned her attention back to the Doctor. He shrugged her off indignantly. “I can stand myself, thank you.”

“What’s wrong, Doctor?” she asked. 

He glanced over at her. “Nothing, I’m sure. A mere twinge, my dear Su – Vicki. Er. My dear girl -”

“It’s Polly,” she told him, but kindly. “Remember, Doctor?”

*

Ben hurried towards the direction the cry had come from, too hastily as it turned out, and he went flying over an unexpected dip in the ground. He landed on the hard surface of what must be an actual road of sorts, which was what he supposed he deserved for running about like that in the dark.

“Who’s that?”

He twisted round, looking up to see a figure standing over him, features lost in shadow, as he was silhouetted against the sky. Ben could see, however, that he was holding a stick.

“My name’s Ben,” he tried. “Was that you yelling?”

The stranger drew back a little and watched as Ben got to his feet. “Yes. You heard me?”

“Well, there’s not exactly much else going on round here, is there?” he returned. “You okay? Sounded like something horrible had happened.”

The other man nodded. Ben was beginning to make out more now, and he could see he wasn’t any older than him, if that. “Sorry. It was only a creature that ran out of the rocks, back there. Harmless, but I wasn’t expecting it. Stupid, I know.”

“Nah, sounds about right to me,” returned Ben easily. “Let’s be glad it wasn’t anything worse. With us, it usually is.”

He lifted his head, trying to make him out, too. “Us?”

“Me, and Pol, and the Doctor,” he told him. “We travel about together, and generally get up to our necks in trouble, that’s all. What about you? I wouldn’t have thought this was the sort of night to go for a starlight stroll.”

The young man tightened the grip on his makeshift staff. “Is that true? Surely you have to be from the Tower?”

“No,” said Ben, holding out has hands, palms open, as if to demonstrate his lack of weapons. “It’s not like I’m even from this planet, when you come down to it.”

The other man merely stared back at him.

“I mean this country,” Ben amended hastily, thinking about how he’d have reacted to a statement like that not so long ago. “We have a sort of ship and we only just got into port. Or landed, however you want to put it.” He squinted back at the bloke. It was impossible to read his expression in this light, but from what he could see, he thought it might be terminal puzzlement. “Look, mate, we’re just hopelessly lost.”

The man lowered the branch at last, stamping about to keep warmer. As they’d been saying, it wasn’t the night for standing around in the open. “I’m from the City,” he said. “It’s a long story, but there’s a research station out here – that dark shape ahead; do you see it? I think they call it Station One Zero officially, but anyone who knows about it just calls it the Tower.”

“Researching what?”

“Don’t ask me. I don’t know. Something complicated and technical, knowing Alan. He didn’t tell me what; just sent me the directions, and that was only for a joke. I didn’t expect to be trying to use them to get here. This wasn’t what was supposed to happen.”

“I’m sorry,” said Ben. “I don’t get any of this. Try starting again. You got a name?”

The stranger laughed and shivered again. “Rick. I don’t know. I don’t know if I should be telling you this much, but then I might only be making a complete idiot of myself. Want to carry on walking that towards the Tower before we both freeze to death?”

“Might as well,” agreed Ben, with a twinge of guilt, as he recalled that he had left Polly looking after the Doctor, but they both knew which way he’d gone, and he had a feeling that this bloke’s story would interest the Doctor – and if there were strange experiments being run in the tall building ahead, that might explain the old boy’s mutterings. “Don’t want to end up as a block of ice, do we?”

*

“And now I’m perfectly well,” snapped the Doctor, pulling away from Polly’s hold. “Really, my dear girl, there’s no need to fuss over me like some ridiculous mother hen. I’m quite sure the disturbance I sensed came from over that way.”

She folded her arms. “Doctor, what about Ben? What’s he going to think when he comes back, looking for us?”

“Oh, that young man is capable of looking after himself,” said the Doctor. “Besides, I can’t see any other sign of civilisation around, other than that particular edifice. I’m sure he’s enterprising enough to work out where we’ve gone.”

Polly followed him. “I suppose you’re right.”

“I usually am,” he said with a chuckle. Then he frowned at the building in the distance. He muttered his next words under his breath, but she caught them: “I must find out!”

*

“I’m probably being stupid,” said Rick with a sigh. “Running out here like this, on my own – it’s crazy, isn’t it?”

Ben shrugged. “I’m not the one to talk, am I? Want to fill me in on some of the details? Is this a sort of Earth colony, then? You got space ships and all that sort of thing?”

“I don’t know what you mean,” he said eventually. “I’m from the City.”

“What city? There must be more than one.”

Rich paused. “No. There are others, but the City is the first. It’s City Area One if you want to be precise.”

The sailor raised his eyebrows. He thought things should have names, but he realised he was, appropriately enough, all at sea here. “Okay, carry on. Just ignore me.”

Rick turned his head suddenly. “Oh, I get it. You’re from one of the wei – I mean, one of the settlements, aren’t you?”

“I might be,” said Ben, “except I still don’t have the first idea what you’re on about. Anyway, that wasn’t what you were going to say, was it?”

He coloured. “Well, weirdo farms. Sorry about that.”

“Right. Thanks, mate. Yeah, you probably could say that.”

Rick pulled a face. “You know the sort of places. There’s the hermit types and some group that keeps getting funds together to set up small communities, and they go away to the middle of nowhere to feel superior to the rest of us, because they can do things with out using smart tech, or the nets, or -”

“Yeah, I get it, I think,” said Ben. “I’m a different sort of weirdo. I travel about, mostly on the sea, but lately it’s got complicated.”

“The sea?”

Now it was Ben’s turn to gape. “Come off it, don’t tell me you don’t know what the sea is? You can’t have a planet without any, can you?” Maybe you could, he reflected. The Doctor would know, but he didn’t. “You know, big lot of water you can’t see the end of.”

“Oh, yes, but it’s a long way away,” he said. “I never paid much attention. Anyway, the City is – you really haven’t been there, even once?”

“No. Trust me.”

He shook his head. “Well, it’s huge. It goes on forever, and there are hundreds of levels up and down. It’s just – everything. Mostly you never have to leave. And if you do go to one of the other cities, there’s the Travel Centres and they get you there right away. I’ve never heard of someone having to use a – what did you say?”

“Ship,” said Ben. He was disappointed. He would have liked to think that even if sailing ships weren’t exactly the transport of choice in the future, a new sort of ship would be in use, with of some of the old traditions still hanging about because of the name, not all this sterile City Area One stuff, and instantaneous travel that didn’t stop to let you look at the scenery.

Rick grimaced. “It’s no use if you want to go to a settlement, or someone like this. There are shuttles, but they’re private. You have to have the credits for it.”

“Some things never change,” said Ben, understanding that much. “I can believe it. Now, why are you out here, then, and what’s this tower place?” He paused, as a small, electronic noise emerged from the other’s direction. “That you beeping?”

The other young man stopped hastily and pulled a tiny, black rectangular object out of his pocket, turning away from Ben. “Hello?” he said, holding it in his palm and talking down to it. “Lia?”

“Rick,” said a female voice. Ben was startled at the clarity of the sound – there was no crackle like you’d get with a radio or telephone. “You’re right. I think something has happened, even though nobody’s saying - How did you know?”

He glanced up at Ben, who moved a little further away. “I told you. I had word from Alan. Ask him.”

“I didn’t have chance,” she said, “but I did pass on your message to him. If you’re still on target, he’ll meet you outside. I’d better go.”

Rick tightened his hold on the object. “Lia, wait! I’ll be there soon, I promise. I can see the place from here.”

“Oh, well, thank goodness for that,” she said, with heavy irony. “What are you planning to do, all by yourself, and not even knowing the difference between a fractural procedure and an isocrism?”

He closed his eyes. “I don’t know. I will, though -”

“Wait,” said Ben, unable to keep from butting in to help. “Tell her you’re bringing an expert. Ask her if she can call back in a short while, or something and talk to him.”

Rick started, and then repeated the words to the unknown girl from the Tower. After he turned the device off, he looked back at Ben. “What did you mean by that?”

“Firstly,” Ben said, giving a grin, “she sounds nice, but do you know what she looks like?”

“What?”

“Nice voice,” Ben said again, with a wink. “And secondly, your luck’s in, because it so happens that the Doctor’s an expert on just about everything. If there’s trouble at that place, he’ll be able to help. I’ll go back and fetch him, and you’ll see.” (Provided he’s not collapsed since, or gone dotty, he added silently.)

*

“Shall I pretend to sprain my ankle?” offered Polly, as they neared the tower in front of them. They had eventually ended up on a road, more by accident than anything else, no matter what the Doctor wanted to claim, so she hadn’t actually done herself an injury, but wandering in the dark like this, it was a lucky thing.

The Doctor paused. “What? Eh? Well, if you want to, my child, I shan’t stand in your way!”

“Doctor,” she said, pulling yet another face. “I meant, so that we would have excuse to get in. It doesn’t look the sort of place that welcomes visitors.”

He smiled, then. “Ah. I see. Inventive of you, my dear. However, I think we shall trust to my wits, so that won’t be necessary.”

“I shan't, then,” said Polly, with no bad feelings at his rejection of her plan.

Then the Doctor put his hands to his head and bit back a short cry of pain.

“Doctor,” she said, catching at him again. “Doctor, are you all right?”

He shook himself. “Yes. I am, but something here certainly isn’t!”

*

Ben returned to the TARDIS, out of breath, only to find there was no sight of either of them. He tried the ship’s door, but it was locked.

It was typical, he thought. That’d teach him to go round boasting about the Doctor to strangers.

Anyway, chances were the Doctor would have made for the only interesting place around, too, and that was Rick’s mysterious tower. So Ben ran back to where he’d left his new friend, only to find he’d gone, too.

That was a bit more of a stumper, but, as he glanced down the road, he could only see one solution to both problems, and set off towards the tower himself. It wasn’t as if there was anything else to do around here, not unless he did want to turn into an icicle, like the Doctor had joked. It was probably why Rick hadn’t hung around, either. After all, nobody wanted to freeze to death.

Of course, it was either that, or something terrible had happened to everyone and he was next.

He wished he hadn’t thought of that.


	2. A Hundred Miles Away

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Doctor, Polly and Ben investigate the mysterious Tower.

Rick had been waiting for Ben, before he remembered that Alan was supposed to be meeting him outside, and his cousin had never had much patience. There was only the one way towards the Tower, so Ben and his expert would find him, whereas Alan might fail to wait for him and there’d be more complications and delays, trying to get inside.

Plus, he was worried again. None of it added up. Until today Lia had maintained that nothing was wrong; in his one snatched conversation with Alan, he’d said much the same, but he’d only come here because of Alan’s original message, and the way his communications had stopped right after that, months ago. 

Could he trust Lia? He wanted to think so. And what would be the point in leading him all the way here? If he’d stumbled on something he shouldn’t have done, he could have disappeared every bit as easily back at home. There was no reason to make him walk all the way out here and then punish him for it. They could have caught him halfway here, too, if they’d wanted to make sure nothing was known in the City. There wasn’t much in the way of cover and he’d have been obvious to the first shuttle on the look out for him.

His carry-com went off again at that point, as if he’d conjured her up by thinking of her. He picked it up. “Lia. I’m here.”

“With that expert, I hope,” she said.

He grimaced. “In a minute. I went on ahead – I didn’t want to miss Alan.”

“I don’t think he’ll be able to get out, not for a while,” she said. “There’s something going on upstairs, and they’re not saying anything. Rick, please tell me the truth: how did you know?”

Rick frowned. “I told you. Alan sent a weird message and then went silent on me. You’ll know as well as me that’s not like him.”

“So you came marching all the way out here?” she returned. “You didn’t bother to stop and report this to the authorities? Why would anyone do that?”

He coloured, and was glad she couldn’t see him. “Well, I did. I thought – I mean the message was all garbled, and I thought maybe – maybe it was Alan in trouble, or this place, and they wanted to hush it all up -.”

“Yes, but you walked out here, all by yourself?”

It had seemed like such a good idea at the time, as if it were an old-fashioned quest, even if there would probably turn out to be a dull explanation. Now there really wasn’t, and things were badly wrong, and all he had was food, water and a torch and a small medikit. It was no wonder she found that hard to believe. It had been more of an excuse than anything else – to go and find out why it was that people left, when they had everything they wanted in the City. He’d initially found it inexplicable, terrified by the openness and loneliness. Then it had seemed like marvellous freedom for a few hours at least. Now it was revealed to be plain stupidity, after all.

“Rick, are you still there?”

He shook himself. Whatever the reason, he _was_ here, and he could at least try to help. “Yes. You come down and meet me, then. See if we can work something out. After all, you know about this stuff.”

“Not anything like as much as the upper levels,” she said. “If it’s something they can’t stop, then -.”

Rick shivered, and not only from the all-pervading cold this time. “I’m only metres away. Come and meet me.”

“I’m still trying to get a message through from the City,” she said. “Give me time.”

She had gone, and he stopped, putting the device back in his pocket. He hoped no one was going to tell him to turn around and walk back, because he was tired of being chilled and muddy and not having easy access to running water. It was one of those things you didn’t even think about until it stopped, like a lot of things he’d noticed since starting on this mad journey.

He heard a sound, and turned his head to see Ben walking down the path towards him. It was nearly dawn now, the sky beginning to lighten at the edges, and the frost whitening with it. He wondered about Ben, then. He’d appeared out of nowhere and claimed to have an expert who could help, not to mention definitely being from somewhere unconventional. Wasn’t that a bit weird, too?

“There you are,” Ben said, catching up with him. His breath was visible in the air now. “I went back to the T- the ship and found no Polly and no Doctor, and then trudged back to find no you, either. Thought something nasty must’ve happened to everyone.”

Rick managed a smile, unable to help being relieved to see him, even if he was another oddity. “Sorry about that. I didn’t want to end up missing Alan.”

“Yeah,” said Ben. “Look, you still haven’t explained properly about that. If something dangerous is going on in there, I’d like to know – especially since it looks as if Polly and the Doctor have found a way in. Well, they’re bound to have done, knowing them.”

*

“Hallo?” said Polly, poking her head around the entrance to the Tower. Her cheerful greeting echoed about the hall. “Doctor, this place is empty. Do you really think Ben’s in here?”

He straightened himself. “Hmm?”

“Oh, _Doctor_ ,” she said, and then repeated her question.

He said, “Most likely. I’m sure he’ll be fine, my dear. However, something here is very much amiss, yes, indeed. Come along, Polly!”

“Well, I can see that,” she said, following him into the gloom of the silent and apparently deserted Tower. “I do hope you know what you’re doing, Doctor.”

He didn’t answer and she hurried on to catch up with him, only to find that he was nowhere in sight. She swung around in the darkened and musty corridor, unable to see any sign of him, no matter how hard she looked. “Doctor!”

*

The Doctor carried on up the stairs. It took him much longer than Polly to spot what was missing. When he did, he frowned and tutted to himself and debated inwardly about whether or not he was concerned about her at all, before he stopped. “Polly? Where did you get to now, child?”

There was no answer, and no clue as to which way she had gone. Really, he thought, it should have been simple enough to follow him up the stairway. He held onto the banister and the lines on his brow furrowed still further.

It should have been, he decided, and that might be part of this problem. Yes, he was beginning to have a very nasty suspicion about all of this.

So, he jutted out his chin, a snap in his blue eyes, and he determined to reach the end of the stairs and what he suspected might be the source of the problem.

And he wasn’t worried about that pair of young people who had forced their way into his TARDIS at all, he told himself sternly. Not at all.

*

Polly could hear someone crying, or trying not to cry. She wasn’t the sort to ignore that, so she poked her head from the corner, into an alcove under the stairs. A dusky-skinned young woman was standing there, pressed back against the wall, and biting her lip while tears escaped, running down her face. Polly would have described her as an Asian girl, but perhaps that wouldn’t be the word for it on this planet. Whoever she was, she was plainly unhappy and that was all Polly needed to know.

“What’s the matter?” she asked, offering the other girl her handkerchief, and putting a cautious hand to her shoulder. “Why isn’t anyone else here?”

She looked at her, widening her eyes as she saw a stranger. “Who are you?”

Polly smiled. “Polly. What’s your name?”

“Lia,” she said, but she frowned, trying to look past Polly. “It’s all over. Somebody’s made a mistake, and now it’s too late.”

She caught her breath. “Too late? Oh, come on – there’s always something you can do.”

“No,” Lia insisted, with a shake of her head. She didn’t sound hysterical, but there was no hope left in her. “Really. Upstairs – and it’s so c-cold.”

Polly struggled to keep her usual optimism. “Well, yes, but it’s freezing outside, so that’s not surprising, is it? Oh, you must buck up a bit, or at least tell me why it’s so dreadful. I don’t see anything at all.”

“There’s only a few of us left,” she added, with a shiver. Then she pulled out a small box, which was bleeping. “Oh.” Then she set her face again and spoke into it. “Rick, is that you?”

Polly frowned to herself and looked again at her surroundings, still unable to understand what the problem was. Maybe, she thought, in alarm, a radiation leak of some sort – something of that nature, invisible but fatal. There was no way of telling. 

Then, as she opened her mouth to say something, she heard voices outside, and she poked her head back out of the alcove to see about five people descending the stairs, cheerful and laughing, and she blinked, stepping forward.

She could hear Lia’s strained, low voice behind her, the jokes of the others from in front of her, and suddenly everything seemed to spin about her. She put her hands to her head with a gasp, crouching down until the dizziness went.

When she looked up, she was alone again.

*

“There was a message,” said Rick. “My cousin Alan. He got this post out here, but he kept in touch. He’s always been too clever for his own good, and a bit of joker with it, so he slipped in a few clues about where this place was, just because he knew he shouldn’t. And it wasn’t as if I’d ever take much notice. Except then he sent one that sounded serious, about something going wrong here – and there weren’t any more. I got in touch with Frencom, the organisation behind it, and they didn’t have anything to say, either. So I packed my stuff, took the directions and walked out here myself.”

Ben lifted his eyebrows. “Sounds like a big step to take.”

“Yes. I had no idea,” said Rick, giving an unhappy grimace. He put his hand to his head. “I thought – I don’t know what I thought. I thought somebody ought to find out, but I don’t think I believed any of it. Not till now. I probably wouldn’t have carried on, but a couple of says ago, I picked up signal from the tower – and Lia.”

He smiled. “It sounds bonkers to me, mate, but I’m not the one to talk after what I’ve got myself into.”

“Now, something really is happening here, and all I have is some food and water, and a torch.”

Ben clapped him on the shoulder. “Well, at least you remembered to bring that much. It’s not that daft. Now, how about we find our way in here and see if we can help?”

“What could we do?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know, but we’ll think of something, won’t we? And, anyway, if we can find the Doctor, he’ll sort it out.”

“Yes,” said Rick. “It’s only – it sounded bad, when I spoke to Lia a minute ago.”

Ben said, “Then let’s hurry, right? You’re not the only one with people in there to worry about.”

*

Polly lifted her head, but there was no sign of anyone else at all. The tower was back to its deserted state. She crossed to the stairwell and looked up it. “Doctor?” she tried. “Lia? Anyone?” After a pause, and hopefully, she added, “Ben?”

There was no immediate answer, but as she began to climb upwards, she heard a familiar voice shouting her name, and stared upward to see the Doctor’s head as he leaned over the banisters a few levels above her.

“Doctor,” she said to herself. “There you are!”

*

Inside the Tower, Rick tried the communicator again, while Ben explored their immediate surroundings. Things didn’t look good. There was no one about, not nearby, and no one responded when he yelled.

It seemed even colder in here than it had out on the moor, and that seemed odd. Ben put a hand to one of the strange machines that lined the wall on one side and pulled it back again swiftly. It had almost burnt him with its iciness.

“Lia?” said Rick into his little box of tricks. “Yes, it is. Where are you? We can’t see anyone here. Are you okay?”

Even Ben could hear the distress in her voice. “No. Rick, you have to go. If you get out now, it’s possible you might be all right. We’ve tried to get messages out, but we’re not sure we succeeded. There was trouble in the upper levels – the experiment has failed.”

“Not your isochrisms again?” he said.

She only said, “You should run.”

“You come and meet me, and then I will,” he said. “I’m in the main corridor. Which way now?”

Lia bit her lip. “It’s not very far. The room to your left. I’ll meet you there in a moment, but you should really go -.”

It did sound bad, thought Ben, as Rick broke the link and pushed open the nearest door, into a long, empty room, filled with more of those machines. What about Polly and the Doc? He wondered. Where were they, if this place had become such a death trap?

*

“Where are we?” asked Polly, joining the Doctor in what was obviously a control room of some sort, on the Tower’s top floor. It was marked off with threatening ‘TOP SECRET’ and ‘KEEP OUT’ signs and hazard warnings, but the door was open now, and it was as deserted as everywhere else.

He fluttered his hands over the controls, as if wondering which to press, muttering something under his breath. She hoped it wasn’t _eeny-meeny-miny-mo_.

“Doctor?”

He turned. “Oh, there you are, my dear.”

“Doctor, what’s happening? There were people downstairs – a girl, and then others – and then they vanished!”

He sighed. “Were there? Well, that rather confirms my theories. This thing must be shut down properly. Somebody clearly thought connecting the main power lines would do it, but it hasn’t even begun to touch the heart of the problem.”

“I do wish you’d explain, or try to,” said Polly. “What is the problem – and where’s Ben?”

The Doctor patted her hand. “Never mind, never mind. I’m sure that young man will be all right. If I can stop this, it’ll put everything to rights, but it all depends – yes, it all depends…” His voice trailed off, as he pressed a finger to his lips, claimed by abstraction.

“Something’s gone wrong with this machine?” she tried. “I see. And what is it doing?”

He turned. “This is the thing I felt when I landed – the waves spilling out from this – it’s fracturing time itself!”

“Fracturing time?” she said, and then frowned. “What does that mean? Is that even possible?”

He said, “Not usually, but with this sort of power behind the attempts – although who knows what those poor misguided fellows were trying to do – it creates first a small fracture, but then it grows, ever outwards. The effects of both the explosion of their power source, and its after effects on Time itself could be utterly catastrophic. There’s no telling how far both might stretch before it stops. It might not stop. The universe itself might slowly shatter in the end, like someone hitting an eggshell with a teaspoon – gently, but do it enough times, and – _crack_!”

“Are you sure?”

He tutted. “Of course, I’m sure. And the time fractures are causing the effects to spill backwards and forward in time – bringing time zones together. You, my dear, just stepped back into a time when there were people here.”

“The girl – she said there had been a disaster,” said Polly. “I was in that time, briefly?”

He nodded. “I daresay. Interesting. Or she was in yours. Now, if I shut this down, like so – everything will stop and the time zones will snap back into line, instead of lying about, bumping into each other, as if someone had turned Time round here into some sort of crazy paving.”

“I think I see,” said Polly, wrinkling her nose, and catching at his arm, halting him before he could act. “It’s only that I can’t help but wonder which time zone Ben is in. If he was in this one, don’t you think we would have seen him? And if he isn’t, then when you put everything back where it belongs -.” She tightened her hold on him. “Doctor, he could be trapped at the time of the disaster – or years and years ahead of us.”

He looked at her, and she realised that a large part of his incomprehensible talk had been intended to keep both of their minds from that thought. He was already perfectly aware of the danger. “My dear, I’m about as certain as I can be that Ben, if he should be in the wrong time zone, will shift back to the correct one once I finish this. It’s complicated, but while the fracture allows interaction with another time zone, he’s not necessarily fully inside it. I’m sure. Dear, dear – well, almost sure.”

“Then shouldn’t we try to find him first?”

He said, “My dear, we’re all in dreadful danger. Everyone on this planet at the very least. I daren’t waste a moment more. Too much time has been lost already – quite literally.”

“But, Doctor -.”

He pulled free of her, but gently. “Yes, yes, don’t fuss. It won’t happen.”

Polly bit her lip and closed her eyes as the Doctor pulled the last switch, and then clutched at his arm.

*

There was a sound around them like the cracking of ice, and Polly gasped, a sudden coldness stealing her breath and making her dizzy, but it passed over. Once it was done, she lifted her head and looked at the Doctor. “Did it work?”

“It did,” he said, patting her hand, as she hastily pulled free. Nothing seemed to have changed much here, but then if she had been following the Doctor’s complicated explanations (and she wasn’t entirely certain she had), then the two of them had already been in the proper time zone. The tower was already deserted and falling into slow disrepair.

She stared at the now dead control panel. “And Ben, Doctor? What about Ben?”

*

There was a snap, as if a door had slammed somewhere, and, as if it had, the room plunged into darkness and Ben yelled out.

“What the hell’s all this about?” he muttered, waiting for his eyes to adjust, but he still couldn’t make out anything much in the sudden gloom that had descended. He drew in his breath, shivering again. “Rick? You okay there?”

There was no reply, and he moved forward cautiously, his hand out in front of him, and crashed straight into something, biting back another yell. He fell, something else falling and clattering beside him on the metal surface of the floor, and he squinted to see what it was.

He’d seen a lot, but that came right out of the blue, and when he understood, he lost his head.

*

Polly heard the banging on the wall from halfway down the stairs, and raced ahead, despite the Doctor’s tutting and warning her that there could be debris lying about and that she might trip.

She opened the door, and nearly fell into Ben’s arms down the unexpected step into the room.

He stopped short, grabbing at her. “Pol,” he said in relief. “I was just – thought I was trapped in here.”

Polly hugged him in relief, and then he turned to the Doctor. “Doctor, you’d better come in. I met this bloke, see – he was trying to get in to help someone – and he was with me -.”

“With you?” cut in the old man, hopping down in a surprisingly agile fashion. “Where is he now, then, hmm?”

Ben turned, trying to keep Polly from following, but it was futile; she had already seen. “That’s the thing. That’s him – and I was – we were here -. Doctor, he turned into a skeleton right beside me!”

“Yes,” said the Doctor, examining the remains. “Of course, that’s not the way it happened, but you couldn’t know that. You see time was fracturing around the Tower, the different periods interacting. He arrived here years and years ago. You shouldn’t have been able to meet, but for that nonsensical machine going haywire up the top of this place.”

He frowned. “Look, I was talking to him – he was right here. There was a girl, too -.”

“I met a girl – Lia,” said Polly. “She was hiding, and then she vanished. Or I thought she vanished.”

Ben said, “So are you telling me that one of us was a time traveller – or a ghost?”

“It shouldn’t be anything unusual for you, my boy – not now.” He gave a slight chuckle.

He scowled over it, trying to follow the explanation. “Why am I okay? Why’s he there, like that, and I’m not?”

“Once I corrected the error, everyone was returned to their proper time,” he explained. “So it wasn’t so much that he suddenly died – as that you saw things as they always were.”

He and Polly exchanged a look. “Right. You get any of that, Pol?”

“I’m sorry,” she said, squeezing his hand.

He shrugged. “Yeah, well, it might have really happened a hundred years ago, or however long the Doctor says, but I walked in here with him. He’d come all this way from the City to find out what was wrong – so I was talking and joking with him only a couple minutes ago, trying to help out – and now you’re telling me he was a ghost all along?”

“Well, not a ghost as you would think of it, but in essentials, yes,” said the Doctor, casting a glance back at the scene as he ushered them both out. “Most distressing, I’m sure. If it’s any consolation, the effects of the fault would have been quite sudden – not painful. Oh, and by this time, they will have quite dispersed, so no need to trouble yourselves over that. Not in time for your friend, whenever he was here, I’m afraid.”

“Yeah, very comforting,” said Ben. “So it was painless, was it? Thing is, it’s all the same once you’re a pile of bones, isn’t it?”

He tugged at his lapels, and turned back. “You shouldn’t have been able to speak to that poor young man at all. Obviously, there was a terrible disaster and it’s very fortunate I chanced along to put things right, but perhaps -.”

“I suppose that why Lia didn’t know there was anything wrong,” he said, cutting in without paying proper attention, still trying to work everything out. “Rick left because he hadn’t heard from his cousin in month – but he was picking her signal up from before the accident ever happened. Blimey, it’s enough to do your head in just thinking about it.”

“Hmm,” said the Doctor. “That is one thing. I suppose it doesn’t make much difference in the end, but none of you should have been able to see each other. He should have died alone in there, as should the girl, but with all the confusion of time periods, you were together. Maybe that’s something, eh?”

Ben led the way out. “Maybe.”

“And,” added the Doctor, “I should mention that I have averted a catastrophe that could have threatened the whole planet, if not this entire section of the galaxy, and potentially brought about the end of the universe itself, so you may also find that a comfort. And, after all, you _are_ alive. I have to admit, I’m relieved about that.”

Polly followed Ben out into the daylight. It was still frosty, but the extreme chill of earlier had gone. “Yes. We were worried you might have been stuck in the wrong time zone.”

“I’m okay,” he told her. 

The Doctor smiled. “Well, you managed not to turn into an icicle.”

“Right,” said Ben. He wanted something to do, some way of changing what had happened, but he could see now they were outside how worn the Tower was from how it had before. It was growing rusty in places, and if it was up to him, he’d recommend demolishing it for safety’s sake. Even so, it was hard to swallow that the initial disaster had happened so long ago there was no help they could give – nothing other than the Doctor’s claim that he’d saved the planet, of course. And, maybe, maybe it was something to have been there with the poor bloke, instead of him being trapped alone in a tower full of the dead, and the after-effects getting him, too. He’d have liked it to have been more, though; somebody ought to have been able to help him, even if it was too late for everything else, but the Doctor had a point, and it would have to do. “Yeah. That’s something. Who wants to be an icicle?”

“Back to the Ship,” the Doctor said, lifting his chin and looking onto the horizon. “Sunrise, see!”

Ben helped Polly along the uneven path. It was unnecessary, but she didn’t object. “Yeah, well that makes everything nice and rosy, that does. Anyway, I’ve already had sunrise once today, even if you two didn’t.”

“No,” admitted the Doctor, his eyes bright with amusement at that. “Of course it doesn’t make anything _right_. But I am rather relieved to see there is going to be one!”

He strode on, leaving them to look at each other again.

Ben shook his head. “He’s a right card, ain’t he?”

“You _are_ all right?” Polly asked, anxiously, taking his hand.

Ben nodded. “Yeah. I’m fine, Duchess. No need to make a fuss. Come on – better keep together, or who knows what other trouble he’ll get us all into before we’re finished.”

“True,” she agreed, and they both hurried after the Doctor, walking towards the faint sunlight of a pale dawn. “He can’t seem to help it, can he?”

“You’d think he’d have learned by now.”

Polly managed to laugh. “Somehow I can’t imagine that he ever will!”


End file.
